Thaksin eyes squad reinforcements

NEW City owner Thaksin Shinawatra has reassured fans that he is working hard with new boss Sven-Goran Eriksson to strengthen the squad - and admits the club could bring in as many as seven new players. The Blues have already been linked with a move for Swedish striker Johan Elmander, with a solution to last season's woeful goal record top of the agenda.

NEW City owner Thaksin Shinawatra has reassured fans that he is working hard with new boss Sven-Goran Eriksson to strengthen the squad - and admits the club could bring in as many as seven new players.

The Blues have already been linked with a move for Swedish striker Johan Elmander, with a solution to last season's woeful goal record top of the agenda.

Shinawatra told www.mcfc.co.uk : "He [Eriksson] is working with my advisers to bring new players to join the club. We have many good players in the Club, but it's not enough.

"We have to get good players to the Club and this season we have to move forward. It's hard to tell how much we are going to spend. We need strikers, we need midfielders. We need quite a number, maybe five, six, seven, I don't know."

Meanwhile, Hans Backe is the new favourite to become Eriksson's assistant manager. The 55-year-old has managed three Swedish clubs as well as Danish sides AaB and FC Copenhagen and SV Salzburg in Austria. He also had a spell in Greece with Panathinaikos, where he was sacked within a month.